How Much Difference Can Short Bursts Of Exercise Make, Long-Term?

“Exercise is good for the health” is not breaking news, and you don’t need a health science publication to tell you that.

But, most people do not do as much exercise as we’d like (even if we have the energy, often daily life gets in the way!), so, it’s reasonable to make sure that the exercise we do have time and energy to do, counts for as much good as possible!

So, here’s the science of doing just that:

What matters more, duration or intensity?

That’s the question that a team of researchers (Dr. Minxue Shen et al.) set out to answer, and found that indeed it’s not just total movement that matters—how intensely you move plays a major role in disease prevention.

Dr. Shen and her team looked at device-measured data (from wrist-worn fitness trackers) from 96,408 participants (of whom, 56.3% women, average age 62), over the course of 7 years.

What they found, in few words: participants who regularly engaged in short bursts of vigorous activity enjoyed significantly reduced risks of cardiovascular disease, atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes, inflammatory diseases, liver disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease, and dementia.

In particular, higher levels of vigorous activity were linked to:

• 63% lower risk of dementia
• 60% lower risk of type 2 diabetes
• 46% lower risk of death

As for the “which is best” question, intensity had a stronger protective effect than total activity for most diseases, especially inflammatory conditions and brain-related conditions.

There several main mechanisms of action that the researchers considered foremost:

• Short bursts of vigorous activity reduce inflammation, helping explain stronger effects on arthritis and psoriasis.
• Short bursts of intense activity stimulates protective brain chemicals and improve oxygen use, supporting lower dementia risk.

You may be wondering how little you can get away with. Per this study, a few minutes daily, adding up to 15–20 minutes per week, was already sufficient to deliver meaningful benefits.

See also: How Useful Is “Exercise Snacking”, Really?

The researchers also noted that short bursts like climbing stairs quickly, rushing for a bus, or brisk walking between tasks count too—it doesn’t have to be an intentional exercise session!

Writer’s anecdote: I remember one time my fitness tracker congratulated me on my good workout, and encouraged me to keep going, while I was changing my bedsheets!

You can read the paper in full, here: Volume vs intensity of physical activity and risk of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular chronic diseases

If you’d like to get started, a good place to begin is: How To Do HIIT (Without Wrecking Your Body) ← important, because the “high-intensity” part can cause problems for some people, if not undertaken attentively!

Want to learn more?

You might like this book we reviewed a while back:

I Will Make You Passionate About Exercise – by Bevan Eyles

What this isn’t: a “just do it!” motivational pep-talk.

What this is: a compassionate and thoughtful approach to help non-exercisers become regular exercisers, by looking at the real life factors of what holds people back (learning from his own early failures as a coach, by paying attention now to things he inadvertently neglected back then), both in the material/practical and in the psychological/emotional.

Enjoy!